Ever After: Karina Bhaiwala & Florian Hudelmaier

German expat Florian Hudelmaier remembers the exact moment he knew he would marry New England native Karina Bhaiwala: It was on a trip to southern Germany when she sweetly disarmed his family’s stoic patriarch. “Karina is a hugger,” he said. “Hugging is not a big thing in my family. Before we left, my grandpa gave Karina a hug, and that was the first time I saw my grandpa hugging someone. That’s when I knew.”

Hudelmaier, a 32-year-old strategy and business development manager for the Wieland Group, matched on Tinder with Bhaiwala, 31, who works at health care marketing company Scout. After two years of dating, Hudelmaier re-created one of their early dates — a picnic in the park — to surprise Bhaiwala with a proposal. Though a rainstorm moved the picnic indoors to their East Lakeview apartment, he still caught her off guard when he popped the question.

Their Labor Day wedding weekend kicked off with an Indian-style sangeet and henna party at Alhambra Palace in the West Loop. “Some of my family came in lederhosen and dirndls,” Hudelmeier said. The next day, a dear friend married them at the foot of the historic Rookery Building’s stunning marble staircase. Instead of a program, guests received a Hochzeitszeitung, a traditional German wedding newspaper about the bride and groom created by their best friends. “They collected photos and stories and people wrote little letters, and there was a crossword puzzle. It was adorable,” Bhaiwala says. After dinner and dancing, they continued the celebration with an afterparty at Theory and honeymooned in Peru, where they hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.